Pompey McAllister talks break down

Portsmouth have failed to agree a deal for Gary McAllister to join them as assistant manager.

The former Scotland midfielder held talks over the position - vacant since Brian Kidd's summer departure for Manchester City - on Tuesday morning, but no agreement was reached, leaving Pompey still searching for a No 2 to boss Paul Hart.

Hart told Portsmouth paper The News: "We couldn't agree anything. He was the man I wanted so it's disappointing."

Former Leeds and Coventry manager McAllister turned down a part-time job as assistant to Scotland national team coach George Burley, preferring to instead seek a role with a Premier League club.

The 44-year-old, who represented the Whites and the Sky Blues along with Liverpool in a distinguished playing career, had confirmed to The News on Tuesday morning he was "coming down for a chat" and hinted that "things might become a bit clearer soon".

Pompey have lost all of their opening seven games of the season - a Premier League record.

They saw their squad significantly weakened over the summer as the likes of Glen Johnson, Peter Crouch, Sylvain Distin and Niko Kranjcar departed for pastures new as the club sought to ease their parlous financial position.

Lower-profile names such as Tal Ben-Haim and Kevin-Prince Boateng were recruited to take up the slack, though the early signs suggest a difficult season is in prospect at Fratton Park, but owner Sulaiman Al Fahim claimed recently that a planned £50m investment will be made available within "two to three weeks".

That could leave Hart with around £10m to spend in January as he aims to boost his playing resources and ease relegation fears.

Al Fahim's assurances also staved off the threat of chief executive Peter Storrie leaving the south coast club, with the latter also publicly supporting Hart over the weekend.

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